Thursday, November 27, 2014

Okay, I know that I haven't posted in *quite* a while, but I had to share this recipe. I'm not sure why I decided to post this in the middle of the Thanksgiving craze, but it just happened that way. I got some pear cinnamon cider from Trader Joe's recently with the sole intention of creating a hot toddy with it. This toddy is an easy twist on the classic, which is typically made with just hot tea or sometimes hot water. In this version, the lovely flavors of the cider kick it up a notch (sorry Emeril) and make for a very comforting night cap. Don't have cinnamon pear cider? Sub your favorite apple cider and you're good to go!

Heat your cider over a stove-top or in a microwave in your mug. Be careful not to scald it!

Steep your tea bag in the cider for 5 minutes, then discard the bag. If the temperature has decreased, heat it up a bit more, then add your bourbon. Stir in the simple syrup, if using, and enjoy! A cinnamon stick would also be lovely here.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

If you looked in my pantry, you would probably think that I am preparing for a long winter storm. I have at least 2 cabinets and a few drawers filled with tea, at least 6 pounds of pasta, jars of dried beans and grains, an 8pd bag of potatoes, and other items that I consider essential. Pasta is something that I always have on hand. It's filling, cheap (if you buy the right kind), quick, and you can easily dress it up or down. For those of you with intestinal troubles, like me, pasta is also a great bland food for when you're not feeling so great.

Since I was a kid, noodles with butter and salt has been one of my comfort foods. A few weeks ago, I had a thought: why not try tamari and vegan butter? I tried it over some GF soba noodles and was floored. The combo of umami tamari and rich vegan butter was more than a success, so now I'm hooked. Last night I took the time to fancy it up a little by adding mushrooms and green onions. I'm not sure why I'm calling it Midnight Express Mushroom pasta, but let's just roll with it. It's quick, cheap, and damn delicious! Make it as rich as you want it to be, just don't use too much tamari or it will be too salty.

Midnight Express Mushroom Pasta

1 pd GF pasta or soba noodles (I recommend soba)

3-4 cups thinly sliced cremini or shiitake mushrooms

2 TBS vegan butter, divided (do not substitute this with oil), plus more for serving

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook your noodles according to package directions. Note that soba noodles are cooked differently than pasta. When finished, drain and rinse and return to your pasta pot.

Heat a small or medium sized skillet on medium heat. Add 1 TBS vegan butter and swirl it around the pan until melted. Add the mushrooms, a tiny pinch of salt, and stir. Cook mushrooms until buttery and soft, about 10 or more minutes. They should be wonderfully browned and almost caramelized.

Add the green onions and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions become lightly browned, about 1-2 minutes. Add the last 1 TBS of vegan butter and 1.5 TBS of tamari. Stir well and let cook for about 30 seconds, letting a thick sauce form. Immediately pour over the pasta.

Stir the mushroom mix into the pasta evenly. Taste for vegan butter and tamari, but do not add salt because that's what the soy sauce is for! I added about an extra tablespoon of vegan butter and two teaspoons of soy sauce. It just depends on how rich you want it to be!

Friday, October 10, 2014

It's finally Fall break! Woo-hoo! I also realized that I haven't done a meal post in over a month, so that was my first order of business for Fall break! A month or so ago, I won a copy of Salad Samurai, which I had been looking forward to reading ever since I heard about it. I will definitely do a full review of it once classes are over, but for now, these are the first recipes I've made from it. I made my own salad with the That 70s Tofu recipe (roasted in tamari, apple cider vinegar, etc.) and the Upstate dressing. The Upstate dressing is supposed to be a healthier and gluten-free version of Annie's Woodstock dressing, which I loved when I was younger. Both recipes were incredibly flavorful and easy to make! I also love that she splits up the recipes by season...but I will save the rest of my lovey-dovey feelings for Salad Samurai when I do a full review!

Typically when we think of "sweet and sour" we think of a stir-fried dish, or even sauce that comes with spring rolls. This sweet and sour brown rice salad from Isa Does It is possibly my new favorite sweet and sour recipe! I did make a couple of changes: I used steamed edamame instead of azuki beans and I used sprouted green peas instead of mung beans. I think next time I will probably leave the sprouts out, because I've come to realize that I am not a huge fans of sprouted beans. Besides that, this salad is tangy, zesty, crunchy, and super flavorful! Don't skip the fresh mint or cilantro! This would be a great lunch to pack for any day of the week as well.

Near the end of summer, I was walking through the grocery store, and I realized that I almost forgot to make minestrone this summer. I quickly looked up the ingredients to my favorite recipe from Shutterbean, and cooked up a huge pot of it that very night. I have tried many different variations on minestrone, but I always come back to this one. I am convinced that the combination of curry powder and red wine vinegar is what makes this particular minestrone incredible and habit-forming. Summer produce is still lingering at markets, however, so make this minestrone before it's too late!

Here's an easy dinner that I pulled together with out a recipe. Warmed GF tortillas (I use Trader Joe's) spread with vegan refried beans, some Mexican spiced tofu scramble that I made, plus fresh tomatoes, avocado, and chipotle lime hot sauce. It doesn't get much better than this!

The mini slow-cooker is a great appliance. It allows you to cook food while you're gone, but it doesn't give you a ton of leftovers that would take weeks to eat. What pairs best with a mini slow-cooker? A book from one of my favorite vegan (and local!) authors which is Vegan slow-cooking for just 1 or 2. This recipe is sloppy black-eyed peas, which also has millet and spinach in it, which I put on toast with hot sauce. I also made some balsamic roasted green beans to eat on the side. Both recipes were great, and the sloppy black-eyed peas were also great over potatoes! I would definitely like to use my mini slow-cooker more this winter.

I love lentil soup, and I am always looking for new variations! This is a lentil soup with cumin and coriander, which you can easily adjust to whatever you have in your fridge. For example, I used yellow squash, only one or two small potatoes, and frozen spinach. This is technically a pressure cooker recipe, but to make it on the stove I just brought everything minus the spinach and lemon to boil, and simmered for an hour or so. After that, I added the lemon, spinach, and more spices. This makes a TON of soup, but I'm sure you could freeze some for the coming colder months! I did love how easy this soup was to make and that it required no oil!

This is definitely one of my new favorite versatile recipes: tomato rice from Food52, which I veganized and made with short-grain brown rice. It was easy to put together, super flavorful, and you could eat it in so many different ways! The first night I had it, I pan-seared some carrots and broccoli in a nutritional yeast sauce to go with it. The following day, I ate it with some soft-boiled eggs and nutritional yeast. If you're vegan, this would be lovely with some pan-seared chickpeas and greens! I would also like to see how this rice holds up in a burrito with black beans and greens. The possibilities are endless!

Procrastibaking (noun) - When you have so much work that you don't want to do, so you bake something instead. I am occasionally guilty of procrastibaking, and this was one of those occasions. I blame the fact that there was leftover pumpkin puree in my fridge, just begging to be turned into muffins every time I looked at it. This is my standby recipe for gluten and dairy-free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins; and yes, I always make them with chocolate chips! There's a local bakery near me that makes the BEST, gigantic, fluffy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, but they are full of things that I cannot eat. BUT, these are seriously amazing and you will not want to share them. Hooray for fall baking (and for procrastibaking too)!

Did you know that GF orzo exists? That's right, and it's incredibly delicious! I discovered that I had some in my pantry from a random Walmart trip (which rarely happens) and I decided to use it for tempeh orzilla, originally from Isa Does It. I don't even know where to start with this recipe because it's so good and has a lot of flavor going on. The tempeh sausage crumbles taste almost identical to regular Italian sausage because of the fennel seed and coriander (which is a great thing). After the orzo is done cooking, it's mixed with a nutritional yeast, white wine and rosemary sauce, along with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and sauteed thinly sliced red onions. Are you drooling yet? This might be one of my new favorite pasta dishes ever, and it was so easy to make! Isa might want to consider re-naming her book Isa always Does it because her recipes are the bomb!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Recently, the wonderful people at Da Capo Press and Gena Hamshaw of Choosing Raw sent me this great book to review! This is my first cookbook review, so as you can imagine, I'm a little nervous and excited. I have been reading Gena's blog for quite some time now, and I was thrilled to learn that she was publishing a cookbook. What strikes me most about Gena is her attitude towards raw and plant-based foods. She isn't telling you to go 100% raw or vegan immediately after this post, because she understands that making that transition or even just adding more plant-based foods is a long process.

Toasted Pumpkin Granola p.148

Reading Gena's introduction to her book really struck a chord with me. Sometimes when I think about my own journey of becoming gluten-free and mostly vegan, I forget that there are probably a lot of people out there that have suffered in very similar ways. Gena is very open in her introduction about her past, which sounds almost identical to mine: from battles with eating disorders, to IBS and digestion issues, we have had very similar troubles. But our outcome has been the same as well: we understand that there must be a balance in our diets in order for us to be healthy and for our bodies to be happy.

Chickpea Tofu Tahini Scramble p.152

So, are you interested in adding more plant-based or vegan foods into your diet? How about trying more raw recipes? Gena's book is a great starting point for anyone who wants to try these things. She breaks it down to it's post fundamental points with these sections: The Why, The What, and The How. This is a great, simple way for people to understand what it means to add more plant-based foods, how it's possible, and why it's a great thing. Since she is a licensed nutritionist, she includes a mini nutrition lesson (which I certainly appreciated), as well as a discussion on the ethics of consuming animals, and answering frequently asked questions or busting common myths. She also discusses the ways in which plant-based foods and raw foods can improve our digestion, energy, and immunity.

Raw Vegan Bircher Muesli p.155

One of my favorite parts of this book is The How section. When I started to change my diet towards more vegan food, I did it all by figuring it out myself and reading a ton of blogs. Gena makes it straight-forward just how simple it is to add more plant-based foods into our diet. Of course, it starts with having a well stocked pantry and the right appliances. These two things are the first things that I tell people who are looking to eat more plant-based. When you have a well-stocked and diverse pantry, alongside the right kitchen equipment, the possibilities for your meals are endless! Then it's just about time management and meal planning. A question that I get asked all of the time is "How do you work, go to school full time, and still cook for yourself all week long?" The answer is that I make time to do these things. And for the most part, I can have something going on the stove, in the oven, or the slow-cooker while I'm busy doing something else that needs to be done. It's not impossible! I also LOVE that Gena includes a very long and detailed meal plan in her book for us newbies to raw foods!

Nori and Pumpkin Seed Cigars p.116

The food section is also organized in a way to make it easier to transition to plant-based foods, with Level 1 (foods like granola and chickpea scrambles, to make it easier to adapt to plant-based foods), Level 2 (going outside of our comfort zone with collard wraps and portobello "steaks), and Level 3 (try something totally new like cashew banana yogurt or raw ratatouille). These leveled sections make it even easier, and fun, to start adding more plant-based foods into our diet! I also really enjoy the section labeled "15 essentials" which includes things like homemade almond milk, a green smoothie, and a kale salad. And last but not least, she also includes many desserts, most of which are raw! For instance, raw peach cobbler and blueberry cheesecake. I have to admit that I've grown fonder of raw desserts lately, and I can't wait to try my hand at them in the kitchen!

Cinnamon-Sugar Roasted Chickpeas p.115

As for the recipes I tried, they were all super easy, quick to put together, and delicious! As you can tell, I tried a mix of raw and cooked recipes. The raw vegan bircher muesli was one of my favorites because it makes a lovely protein-packed and quick breakfast during the week! I also think I am seriously in love with the chickpea tofu tahini scramble. I've never thought of putting tahini in my tofu scrambles, but I might just have to now! The last recipe I made was the cinnamon-sugar roasted chickpeas that you see above. I was interested to see how the flavors would work together, and I was pleasantly surprised! I seriously can't recommend this book enough to anyone who is interested in seeking a more plant-based diet or raw foods in general!

A special thanks again to Da Capo Press and Gena Hamshaw of Choosing Rawfor sending me this great book! All opinions expressed are my own.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

It's so odd to make this post because the first few recipes are from before school started back! That's why there's been a long "pause" in between posts around here lately. My schedule is kind of odd this year, with more than a few night classes, so I'm still trying to get my grip on meal prepping/cooking/doing dishes. Anyways, here is a Thai basil fried rice I made a few weeks ago for breakfast. I basically sauteed some cooked rice with Thai basil, GF soy sauce, sesame oil + rice vinegar. I also used eggs, so it's not vegan, but you could easily substitute crumbled tofu! And don't forget tons of sriracha on top! I can post a full recipe if anyone is interested.

This is the first time I've used avocado in pasta, and it was surprisingly delicious! The pesto is super easy to make, flavorful, and maybe one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had. The only thing to be aware of is that because avocados brown easily, the leftovers are only good for maybe a day afterwards (but I stopped caring and just ate all of it anyways). As Angela suggests, I topped mine with lemon zest, black pepper, extra basil and served it with some cherry tomatoes.

After taking anitbiotics for so long, it finally caught up with me and I stuck to "bland foods" for about a week. This chickpea, cabbage + rice soup from Isa Does It was absolutely perfect! This soup is incredibly cheap and easy to make, plus it's super nourishing! I can't wait to make it in the fall/winter this year. Instead of the dill, I made a "boquet garni" of fresh oregano, thyme, and rosemary which added a lovely fragrance to the soup.

I was really craving caprese, so I made a vegan version up! I basically made a balsamic reduction, which I briefly marinated the tofu in (next time I will add fresh oregano) and cut the same width as the tomatoes, then sandwiched them in between each other along with a large basil leaf. It satisfied my craving and was a delicious summertime dinner!

One of my favorite things to do is to take a couple of components from a recipe, and improvise the rest. This was my first "back to school" meal: I got the garlic-tahini sauce and garlicky millet/rice from this recipe. Instead of the suggested vegetables, I seared some local summer squash and cooked edamame with some garlic. This bowl was absolutely delicious! I also loved having millet/jasmine rice together instead of my usual plain brown rice or plain jasmine rice. I also used this sauce on some eggs with pico de gallo, which was also tasty! This is one of my favorite bowl meals ever and it was so simple!

From One Dish Vegan: pasta with chickpeas, spinach and raisins served with GF/DF multi-grain ciabatta rolls. If you've never tried raisins in savory dishes before, it adds a lovely, subtle sweetness to dishes. I loved this recipe because the fennel seeds pairs with the garlic and raisins wonderfully! Also those ciabatta rolls are ridiculously delicious (not homemade).

Work snacks: cut up celery, cucumber + carrots with homemade sun-dried tomato hummus. This was my first time making sun-dried tomato hummus and it was wonderful! I definitely need to start using sun-dried tomatoes more.

Lentils are definitely a staple in my diet because they're cheap, quick to make, and super versatile. I try to get mine from Trader Joe's because they're about $2/less a bag (brown and red). For French lentils, I get Harris Teeter organics for about $2 as well on sale. Anyways, you can do anything with lentils: soups, salads, tacos, "meat"balls, pasta, etc. The list goes on! Here's one of my favorite ways: lentil taco meat from Happy Herbivore Abroad. These were a great, quick meal for any night of the week! We topped ours with chopped lettuce, hot sauce and pico de gallo. I also used the leftover lentils the next day to make a taco salad with crushed taco chips and other salad fixings (also with chipotle lime hot sauce).

I probably sound like a broken record when I start sentences with "I can't believe I don't make this type of dish more often"...but I really can't believe I don't make cold noodle salads more often! This is the spicy cucumber and edamame soba salad from One Dish Vegan. This wasn't quite as spicy as I wanted it to be, so I used extra chili garlic sauce at the end. Noodle salads are great for packed lunches, especially when they're beautiful and green like this one!

This is my first Ethiopian dish: Atakilt Wat or Ethiopian cabbage, potatoes and carrots. I loved this meal because of the mix of warm spices like cardamom and cinnamon, alongside cumin and turmeric to create a beautifully golden-hued dish. Cabbage and potatoes, as well as carrots, are typically cheap vegetables too, so it makes a great budget meal as well. I served mine with cooked brown rice from the slow cooker and LOTS of sriracha. I'm probably breaking some food codes there, but trust me, it's wonderful.

Here's a great time saver for classes: making slow-cooker oatmeal overnight so you don't have to make breakfast in the morning! This one has vanilla, spices and almond milk. I also added cranberries and pecans when I served it. I'm starting to realize I'm not a huge fan of steel cut oats, but I know there are plenty of slow-cooker recipes with regular oats as well. This also made enough for breakfast for 3-4 days!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

My last meal before getting my wisdom teeth out is one of my go-to easy meals: jasmine rice steamed with spinach (stir it in after cooking until it wilts), cubed farmer's cucumbers, sliced avocado, two eggs over easy (with garlic and smoked paprika in the yolks) and miso horseradish kimchi. I would also usually add a good amount of sriracha on top, and any other vegetables I have on hand.

This watermelon frosty is probably the best thing ever for sore, tender gums. Just be sure to freeze some fresh watermelon before your surgery! Or, if you're just a normal person, add tequila and call it a daiquiri. Sadly I could not add booze this time, but I will next time!

One of the first things I cooked a few days after my procedure was mashed white beans with garlic, spinach + lemon. As you can see, I mashed mine until they were practically liquid. These were so delicious and easy to make that I ate the entire skillet in one sitting. I'd love to make these again with a side of rice or roasted potatoes. Also, it takes less than 10 minutes, so it's a great weeknight meal!

Anddd more soft food. Seeing a pattern here? I was sort of confused when my dental surgeon told me to start eating normal food the day after my surgery. My only advice is to slowly build up to eating normally. Don't eat a potato chip three days after. I did lots of chewing after my procedure and now, about a week and two days later, I can eat anything, but I am still being cautious. Anyways, this was a lovely tofu scramble with tomatoes and lots of spices (minus the spinach) and a baked potato with smoked paprika and vegan butter. I am sort of obsessed with smoked paprika because it makes everything taste like bacon! But this scramble is fast, delicious, and full of flavor.

Recently, my blogger friend Kara gave me The Heart of the Plate in a giveaway. I read the book constantly after my procedure and was completely in love. This book is immaculate and incredibly creative. Almost every recipe is vegan, if not easily adapted to be vegan. I can't wait to cook my way through it, and I started with something mushy (obviously): golden lentils with soft, sweet onions. I've been eating these for days and I'm not sick of it yet. I served mine with brown rice, and later some chopped local tomatoes. It would be wonderful with a balsamic reduction and a fried egg, or even balsamic roasted tofu/chickpeas on top. I love this book because it gives you "Enhancements" for each recipe: things to add to make it different from the first time you made it, or to make it extra special. I can't wait to continue sharing things I make from this book! Thank you again Kara!

Have you heard of this new craze called banana ice cream? Well, you better get on it. I can't share this recipe because it's from the cookbook I'm testing for, but just google "banana ice cream" and you will get tons of results. It's easy, healthy, creamy, and tastes like ice cream! And: no ice cream maker required! I added sprinkles to mine, which was inspired by this recipe for cake batter banana ice cream.

Another recipe from the cookbook I'm testing: an anti-inflammatory smoothie with blueberries, green tea and turmeric!

I got tired of mushy things, eventually, so I settled on making these vegan sweet potato + spinach quiches to take to work this week. These are delicious! My mom was convinced that they contained eggs. They were also fairly easy to pull together and didn't require any crazy ingredients/prep. I can't wait to try the broccoli cheddar version too, but I will be subbing nutritional yeast for the Daiya cheddar. I'll share that photo when I do so!

Well, I was almost in the clear for having a great surgery and recovery. Yesterday I woke up with an infection in one of my extraction sites, which is all thanks to me. Kids: learn how to use your irrigation syringe properly. I used mine after I ate anything, but wasn't going deep enough. That leads to nasty, incredibly painful infections and more antibiotics. Hooray! Lesson learned. If you're really unsure, here's a great video that helped me do it the right way. After all the soup I ate post surgery, I'm still not tired of it (somehow), so I made Isa's alphabet soup with a few changes: I used this pasta, subbed in 2 tsp herbes de Provence in place of the thyme/tarragon, and I used frozen edamame in place of the frozen peas. This is legit alphabet soup. The real deal. It tastes a million times better than anything from a can. So go and make some! This is definitely my new go-to "feeling crappy" soup.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

This is an extra-long post because I am posting all of the things I've eaten before my wisdom teeth surgery, which is in two days! This blueberry cobbler smoothie will probably be perfect after I get my teeth out too, even though I made this last week. This smoothie is super easy, lemony and delicious! I've been using a lot of my local blueberries as much as possible lately, which I'm storing in the freezer.

I made Kara's delicious vegan omelette last week, which I stuffed with a smoky balsamic mushroom and spinach filling. I love how ridiculously filling these vegan omelettes are and they only have a few ingredients, minus the fillings! It kept me full for more than a few hours. For the filling: I just sauteed some thinly sliced cremini mushrooms in a pan with some olive oil until lightly browned. Then I added a heavy splash of balsamic vinegar and a few drops of liquid smoke, then stirred in some chopped spinach, until everything is soft and flavorful!

Another delicious blueberry smoothie! This one has vegan yogurt and GF rolled oats for some extra sustenance.

I made some very flavorful deviled eggs as a snack last week using sriracha, hard-boiled egg yolks, some vegan mayo and leftover homemade garam masala hummus. I then topped each one with a Thai basil leaf. These were amazing!

I LOVE trying new variations on Caesar dressings, and this one from Veganomicon is incredible because it's made with silken tofu and finely processed almonds. The best part of this salad was definitely the roasted garlic croutons, which I made GF by using Udi's GF whole-grain bread. I also added chopped cucumbers, chickpeas and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast to make one delicious and filling salad!

A mushroom, green onion and thyme omelette I made for breakfast!

I made a very quick and filling smoothie at work: one green superfood chocolate packet, 3 frozen bananas, a heaping spoonful of peanut butter and a few splashes of hot water. I loved this chocolate superfood packet and I can't wait to try the other flavors!

I haven't had a samosa in years, so these samosa-stuffed baked potatoes were a great substitute (since I can't have the pastry dough)! They didn't take too long to make, but I certainly wouldn't cook them on a week day. The flavors of the samosa filling were absolutely delicious and very authentic! I'd recommend this for anyone who loves samosas, but doesn't want to go through the process of making samosas. This recipe originally comes from Veganomicon.

I recently snagged some local okra from a produce stand, so I finally broke down and made these okra fritters again! I made them GF by using Bob's all-purpose GF flour and added some Cajun seasoning in order to add a little more flavor. I made these years ago, and they are still delicious and very easy to make! I topped mine with some vegan mayo and a few more sprinkles of Cajun seasoning.

I haven't made banana bread in a while, but this summer squash banana-oat loaf with an almond streusel really caught my eye! I have never used summer squash (except zucchini) in desserts. I used local two-tone summer squash. Of course, I also love that this recipe is already gluten and dairy-free, so no substitutions needed! I also can't believe I've never baked anything with a streusel topping before this! This loaf was super easy to make and very lightly sweetened, which I really love.

I made another wonderful recipe from Veganomicon this morning, which was this corn and edamame sesame salad. It took only ten minutes to make and is a great lunch served with some rice crackers! I love anything that is flavored strongly with sesame, and anything with edamame!